M-Commerce stands for Mobile Commerce. It goes beyond the mobile responsiveness of eCommerce websites. Let’s start at the beginning. An eCommerce site is a website on which products and services are sold. There is an exchange of payment on the site for a product (physical or digital) or a service. Think of Amazon, the mega eCommerce website. It can also be a local mom and pop gift shop that wishs to sell their products online.
Internet buyers are buying items on their smartphones or tablets at an increasingly growing rate. For some companies, they now get most of their sale on phones or tablets (some phones are so large now that they look like tablets and vice-versa). M-Commerce, or mCommerce, focuses on mobile sales which are sales made on a phone or tablet. This is called mobile shopping but there is also mobile banking and payment. It is the next phase in website development.
By switching the focus to mCommerce, companies have seen incredible growth in sale. They understand that smartphones are here to stay and about to take over desktop computers. I have seen people sitting at their desk in front of their PC and searching for products to buy on their phone.
What is the focus on exactly? It is about analyzing every detail on the user experience on a phone: Adjusting design, message, text, calls-to-action, products images and details, payment options, and more. It requires more development work which means more money to spend on your site. It takes responsive design to a higher level. Some hide most pages of their website on smartphone so that only the products show up ready to be purchased. They get right to the point which is what clients want on a mobile device. That may have some search engine optimization consequences so there are pros and cos.
In addition to coding work needed on the website, other steps can be taken as part of the Mobile Commerce efforts such as selling products on other sites (known as omni-channel experience). Examples: Google Shopping, Amazon, ebay, etc. This multiplies the exposure and you can be sure that these large companies are focusing on mCommerce already.
mCommerce is awesome but requires additional budget. Like anything related to marketing, you have to think of your ROI, return on investment. To start a discussion with one of our team members, send us an email at info@santarosawebsite.com.
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